(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, and more particularly, to a method for improved order placement and prioritizing.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
For the creation and delivery of semiconductor devices, technical capabilities of device creation must be supported by and be complementary to capabilities of device ordering and device shipment. In both of these disciplines there potentially exists a wide margin of error that can as a first for instance result in poor device quality and as a second for instance in non-optimized shipment of devices.
System requirements of a system that supports shipment of semiconductor devices must meet customer expectations of quick response time and of maintaining precise and up-to-date delivery schedules of product that is shipped to a variety of customers. These latter requirements must be integrated in a smooth manner with production capabilities and production schedules, any mismatch between product that is required and product that is being manufactured is likely to result in customer dissatisfaction. The manufacturing operations must thereby be performed in a cost-effective manner, which in most cases requires an optimum usage of manufacturing equipment, an optimum product mix and optimized equipment maintenance.
In many ways therefore can it be stated that an ordering system drives a manufacturing facility, product is committed to numerous customers on a long term and short term basis while the ordering system must be capable of quick response and updating of any input that changes existing delivery schedules and commitments, based on customer requirements.
The product ordering system must thereby function and be designed for a manufacturing facility that is complex and multi-faceted and may comprise such manufacturing aspects as handling one-time, specific orders, providing special products that are not part of conventional processing cycles, simultaneously providing products of different type, re-cycling product and the like. From all of this it is clear that a system that is required to handle customer orders must be all-inclusive and must yet remain flexible so that existing conditions of customer orders can be changed with short term notice.
In a conventional customer ordering system, a Central Planning Department (CPD) controls and supervises system content and operation and maintains data that reflect, on a per-customer basis, product that is allocated to customers and product that has been ordered by the customers, this in a file that for this purpose is typically referred to as a Customer Allocation Support and Demand (CASD) function. This conventional function suffers the disadvantage that an order, when placed, cannot be instantaneously placed but is only entered and activated at the time that a Total Order Management (TOM) batch run is executed. A TOM batch run is conventionally scheduled at about eight hour intervals, in view of the requirements that are placed on the TOM execution.
To enhance system turn-around for customer orders, it is of benefit to improve this method, whereby a customer order when placed can be directly and without time-delay entered into the system, that is entered into the conventional CASD. The invention provides such a function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,960 (Lin et al.) shows a WIP balance and scheduling system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,716 (Chin et al.) shows a dynamic lot dispatching system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,326 (Tai et al.) shows another dynamic lot Dispatching system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,626 (Lilly et al.) teaches a scheduling method.